PF Chang’s Home Menu Chicken Tonkotsu Ramen (Boxed) Review

PF Chang's Home Menu Chicken Tonkotsu Ramen

People are often surprised there is so much variance in the world of ramen. On one end of the spectrum, you have the stuff you buy in a packet for a quarter. On the other end is gourmet ramen, which can cost $20 a bowl (or more) at a fancy Japanese restaraunt. People mainly familiar with the former are often surprised to learn that the latter exists. “Why would you pay $20 for a bowl of ramen?” these people often ask. What they don’t know is that gourmet ramen is one of the great pleasures of Japanese cuisine. In fact, it’s among our favorite meals.

Somewhere in the middle — between the two extremes we mentioned in the previous paragraph — is frozen ramen. This is higher in quality than the stuff you’d get in a packet, but nowhere near restaurant-quality ramen. In that category exists the PF Chang’s Chicken Tonkotsu Ramen which we’re reviewing today.

This meal comes in a bagged version, but we’re interested in the boxed version today. We imagine the two different version have different cooking instructions (the PF Chang’s bagged ramen we’ve tried required a saucepan). The boxed version can be quickly heated in the microwave, but don’t forget to add water before cooking. (You can read the full cooking instructions by checking our the package scans at the bottom of this review.)

PF Chang's Home Menu Chicken Tonkotsu Ramen

A good broth is essential to a top-notch bowl of ramen, but what’s here is just alright. It’s a serviceable broth with a decent chicken-infused flavor, and it’s certainly better than the powdery stuff you’d get in a 25-cent pack of ramen. Of course, it’s not amazing. A lot of ramen broths are spicy, but this isn’t spicy at all.

The noodles are another essential component in a top-notch ramen, and like this broth, the noodles here are good but not amazing. They have an al dente consistency and a rough texture to them.

The chicken chunks are actually pretty good here. They’re a little rubbery, but they have a ton of flavor. Part of this is because they soak up the broth, but they also have a really lovely natural flavor.

While we didn’t get to try it for ourselves, we think that adding an egg to this would really take it up a notch. A lot of our favorite restaurant ramens have a runny bit of egg in them, which adds a whole new layer of flavor and thickens up the consistency of the broth. If we end up trying this ramen again, we’ll make sure we have some eggs on hand.

This frozen ramen isn’t exactly made for dieters. With 450 calories and a whopping 1,410 mg of sodium, you certainly won’t want to make this a regular meal. We did find this to be quite a bit more filling than we were expecting, which is a good thing considering how high the sodium level is.

The PF Chang’s Home Menu Chicken Tonkotsu Ramen is nowhere near as tasty as a restaurant-quality ramen, but it’s pretty decent for a microwaveable meal. If we were allowed to change one thing about the dish, we think we’d ask for a better quality ramen (and then we’d add our own egg).

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen ramen, check out our package scans below.

PF Chang's Home Menu Chicken Tonkotsu Ramen
PF Chang's Home Menu Chicken Tonkotsu Ramen
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